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The Dunhill cigar brand is a brand that was originally produced in Cuba by a company called Cubatabaco, on the behalf of Alfred Dunhill of London. In tobacco terms, the Dunhill Cigar brand is relatively young, because production of the brand began in 1982, although Dunhill was selling other tobacco products on an exclusive basis long before then. The Cubatabaco company was responsible for making the cigars until 1991, and after that the production was moved to several other countries. Today, the brand is now owned by British American Tobacco.
The History of Alfred Dunhill's Tobacco Projects
Mr Alfred Dunhill opened his first tobacco store in 1907. The store was located on Duke Street in London. Because this was before the Cuban Revolution, Dunhill was able to form distribution agreements with numerous Cuban Cigar makers, and was able to market and sell several hard to source brands, including the Don Candido line, and Dunhill's very own Seleccion Supremea range. He had deals with prestigious cigar makers such as Romeo y Julieta (the original Cuban variety) and Montecristo.
Dunhill's contacts and purchasing power meant that he became the supplier of cigars to prestigious clients, including George VI and Sir Winston Churchill. According to company lore, when Dunhill's Jermyn Street store was destroyed during a bombing attack in the London Blitz, employees from the store called Winston Churchill, at four o'clock in the morning, to reassure him that the private collection of cigars that he had deposited into the shop's humidor had been moved out of the store, and were safe.
Following the Cuban Revolution, Dunhill was able to maintain a relatively good relationship with the communist government's tobacco monopoly. He was able to stay in touch with Cubatabaco and earned exclusive rights to Don Candido, La Flor del Punto and Don Alfredo. He also retained access to some Seleccion Suprema sizes that were made by marques which were still trading after the nationalization of the tobacco industry.
In 1967, Alfred Dunhill Ltd's tobacco branch was sold off to become a separate entity. Later, in 1981, the tobacco blending part of Dunhill pipe tobaccos was handed off to Murrays of Belfast. It remained there for more than 20 years before being transferred to Orlik of Denmark in 2005. This move was noticed by fans of Dunhill's pipe tobacco varieties and sparked a lot of debate about the change.
Dunhill Blends
The Don Candidoline of cigars was created in 1935 and is one of the more popular brands to be sold by Dunhill. The cigars were intended to serve as a super-premium offering - a sort of upgrade to the El Rey del Mundo blend that was owned by Vega and that was exclusively distributed through Dunhill. The Don Candido cigars were produced at the Briones Montoto factory in Havana, which was formerly used by Romeo y Julieta. These cigars are highly collectible and are known to command huge prices when they are offered up at auction.
The Don Alfredo line was created for Dunhill tobacco in the 1960s. This line was produced at the Jose Marti Factory, which was previously known as the H. Upmann factory.
The La Flor del Punto blend was another exclusive Dunhill blend. It was introduced into the Dunhill line after the Don Alfredo range, and was made at the Partagas Factory. It boasted the iconic White Spot on the cigar band for a long time, but the spot was removed from the band when the Dunhill Cigar blend was released.
Work on the Dunhill branded cigars began in 1977, but the first cigar in the line was not released until 1982. Initially, the cigars were released to just ten countries, but that later expanded to thirty. Unfortunately, Dunhill did not do well as a brand. The company struggled to compete with Davidoff, another high-end cigar maker that operated in the private label space. When Cubatabaco proved unwilling to get involved in the competition between the two labels, Dunhill refused to renew their contract. They went on to give up the rights to make cigars altogether, and instead passed on those rights to the British American Tobacco brand. Hence, original Dunhill products are now highly sought after by buyers.
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